Here's another idea, if you have the time...I just put a sweet potato in water yesterday to grow my own vines. I found an old sweet potato hiding in a corner; it had begun sprouting a small white "sprig" with purple edges. Seemed wasteful to kill it so I did a little research online about how to root the sweet potato and followed instructions that were repeated in several places.

I now have a sweet potato upright (naturally pointed end in water, blunt cut end on top) supported by three toothpicks pushed in midway around the tuber, suspended in water in a repurposed plastic bottle with the top cut off. The toothpicks keep the sweet potato from resting on the bottom of the former bottle and I cut three little slits to stabilize the toothpicks so the tuber is now resting comfortably in its new home.

Cost almost nothing and I should have roots first in a few weeks, then vines shortly thereafter by changing/filling the water periodically, according to my online resources. Bonus: seems I can keep the sweet potato in water to continue growing more vines after I cut the ones I want to plant.

If you prefer video, lots of YouTube videos came up in my Google search. Also found a video on how to plant the vines after clipping them from the sweet potato.

Just offering up another option. Happy planting!

I agree. The sweet potatoes I grew last year were from store-bought potatoes from the grocery store and made beautiful vines with very dark leaves and purple flowers in the morning. I don't know which kind they were, but when frost killed the vines, we dug up a bucket of really delicious potatoes, win-win.

I had done this in the garden, where they could grow up the stalks of the huge sunflowers, but it would have made a lovely trailing pot or been beautiful on a fence or trellis (but probably harder to dig up the potatoes, if one wanted to do so.)